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Alternate Future vs. The Man in the High Castle
There are a number of books, movies or films that influenced The Old Blood & The New Order, but one story in particular seems to have had the greatest impact on Machine Game's new Wolfenstein universe. The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by Philip K. Dick, in which The Allies lost WWII and United States was captured and occupied by the Axis powers. Contrast Philip K. Dick places the key event that changed history around the assassination attempt on Franklin D. Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara (February 15, 1933), which leads to a series of weaker presidents taking over starting with Vice President John Nance Garner. This led to the US remaining largely isolationist for much of the war, resulting in its capture later. In the Classic timeline, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president at least into the early 1940s (as per cut-scenes in Spear of Destiny/Original Encounter, photos in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc) . However, its possible that specific history of those games isn't followed by The Old Blood/The New Order/The New Collosus (even in the old games the "President" was never specifically mentioned by their names, though images were shown). If Roosevelt was the president, however, assuming he lived, possibly all the way to the end of his 4th term in early 1948 (assuming he didn't die earlier due to his health issues, or assassination attempts). There is no indication that he lived through his 4th term, or even won a 5th term, or if the Nazis would have encountered his replacement instead (if he had survived into his 4th term, the next president having been sworn in in January, 1948, and Germans take over in December, 1948. The New Order, and Old Blood, and New Collosus do not even indicate who was president at the time of those games (only referring to "The President"). Similarities and Differences *In both timelines due to weaknesses in the Allies, and advancements in German technology, the Germans become a superior force. In Dick's novel, they take too much time, and never built up a force to take on the Germans, while in MachineGames story, the Germans advance due to discoveries of advanced technology both supernatural and scientific. *In the next 15-20 or so years following the war in both stories, the Nazis have time to progress technology further, going as far to colonize the Moon. In Dick's story they have progressed beyond the Moon, to colonize Venus and Mars. In The New Order, the Nazis have gone as far as the Moon, but are preparing a mission to colonize Mars. As of The New Colossus, the Nazis have also established a colony on Venus, using UFO technology from Area 51. *In both stories, the Nazis win the race to build nuclear weapons and use these to conquer the United States by destroying a major city. In High Castle, Washington D.C. is destroyed. In The New Order, New York City is destroyed, with only pockets of non-irradiated areas remaining. In both stories, the nuclear bomb (Heisenberg Device in High Castle, Der Bestrafer in New Order) have made a once prominent American city (Washington D.C./New York City) uninhabitable and left as wastelands for years to come. *In High Castle, the destruction of Washington D.C. means the capital is relocated to New York City. In The New Colossus, New York City is destroyed but Washington D.C. remains as the capital of a Nazi-occupied U.S. *The Nazis have captured most of Europe, there are very few 'neutral' powers left, and no more Axis powers. In The New Order, they have captured all or most of Europe, and any 'neutral' powers are little more than proxy puppet governments setup by the Nazis. *The Nazis are still trying to conquer Africa, and genocide and resistance is very high in both stories. *In High Castle, The Nazis are draining the Mediterranean Sea for farmland. In The New Order, they have simply built a bridge across the Straight of Gibraltar. *Jews are thought to have been eradicated in both universes (or at least survivors held in prison camps on the remote regions of the empire). However, other surviving Jews maybe hiding among the Germans under their noses (and possibly even holding positions of power, though this is more obvious in Dick's universe). *In High Castle, German-Japanese forces led to the destruction of the Allied forces in Europe and North America together. In New Order, Germany betrays the other Axis members and rules alone. *Hitler due to his deteriorating mental health becomes more of a puppet. He is still alive in Phillip K. Dick's storyline, but is living in a nursing home due to his syphilis (but still has a cult of personality following him). Martin Bormann became the new Reich's Chancellor in his place for many years, but when he died, it created a power struggle among even more vicious Nazi leadership. In Old Blood/New Order, there is too much disinformation going on to know if Hitler is actually alive or not (though from average person's perspective he's still alive), but he's clearly not the main focus of the 'cult of personality' which has seemingly been taken over by Deathshead. Deathshead, like Bormann (in Dick's novel) appears to be the true leader behind the Third Reich at that point in history. In The New Colossus, however, Hitler is revealed to still be alive, though his physical and mental health are greatly deteriorating. At some point prior to Youngblood, B.J. Blazkowicz personally kills Hitler once and for all. *In Dick's novel, Japan remains largely its own power, albeit technologically inferior to the rising Germany. But its still instrumental in winning the war, and defeating the United States (and winning the west coast). It's had diplomatic peace under Bormann, but most know that when he dies, his replacements would turn on Japan (and conquer them). In New Order, Japan still is influential in breaking the United States defenses, but it suffered several major defeats to China, and then become a vassal state to Germany (when it came in to rescue them). The exact details of the west coast vs. east coast is not clear, but it seems that its held by Germans, rather than the Japanese or possibly one of the few places still resisting German occupation. *In Dick's novel, the Rocky Mountain states have become a sort of neutral, lawless frontier buffer zone (like the "Old West"), neither controlled by the Japanese nor the Germans. It has become sort of a giant internment camp to people trying to escape from German occupation, with Nazi bounty hunters entering it to capture dissidents. In New Order its not clear what has happened in this region, although Blazkowicz may indicate that portions of Texas might still be relatively untouched by the Nazi control (that people could move there and live out the rest of their lives in relative peace). Newspapers in The New Order seem to indicate there are still resistance forces in the Rockies. *In High Castle, The Nazis control only the East Coast and Midwest of America as "Nazi America" while the West Coast is controlled by the Japanese as a puppet state named "Pacific States of America". In The New Order and New Colossus, however, the Nazis dominate the entire American landscape even as far west as San Francisco, New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii. They have formed an alliance with the Ku Klux Klan, reintroduced slavery to the South and beyond, and established concentration camps in New Mexico. Some surviving cities such as New Orleans have been walled off into ghettos. After 15 years, Many Americans, such as Rip Blazkowicz, seem genuinely content with living under Nazi rule, with only scattered pockets of resistance remaining. *In both stories, English is still spoken in America but German is also prevalent. In Dick's novel, English is one of the official languages spoken throughout "Nazi America" alongside German as well as in the Japanese-controlled "Pacific States of America". In the New Colossus, the Nazis planned on banning the English language and replacing it with German but due to the Second American Revolution these efforts are thwarted. *There is a banned story within a story in Dick's novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which tells of an alternate history where the Allies won the war, which almost mirrors real life events, though leads to a different outcome following the war. In The New Order there is nothing as specific, although B.J. during his coma had dreams where he helped 'win' the war, married, and had children (or its a future 'dream' of him and Anya and his twins). Likewise, his Escape from Castle Wolfenstein, and assassination attempt on Hitler, have become an apparent popular computer game. Tekla also appears to see into different realities or timelines in-between her periods of lucidness, In The New Collosus Wyatt seems to start seeing into universe and other realities during his LSD trips. In The New Collosus is a book review of a book called The Trumbauer Journals which is an 'alternate history" in which the plane flown Trumbauer who was carrying the atomic bomb to drop over New York is shown down. The book was written by Ingo Krämer. This alternate history appears to split from the MachineGames alternate history in the year 1948.